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News > Latin America

Argentine Teachers Continue Strike for Salary Increase

  • Buenos Aires city streets fill with teachers as protests for higher salaries and unemployment gain strength.

    Buenos Aires city streets fill with teachers as protests for higher salaries and unemployment gain strength. | Photo: EFE

Published 14 June 2017
Opinion

Amid a host of protests taking place across Buenos Aires, teachers are joining the marches to demand higher salaries.

Thousands of Argentine teachers hit the streets of Buenos Aires Wednesday to protest for better salaries, moving forward with their planned 24-hour strike.

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The strike was called by the Front for the Teachers Unit of Bonaerense and brought together six of the city’s largest teachers unions: SUTEBA, FEB, SADOP, UDA, AMET and UDOCBA. The labor groups also called on the Argentine government to do a better job of combatting unemployment.

“Many of the teachers have high convictions to fight for their salaries,” Buenos Aires Federation of Educators Secretary General Mirta Petrocini told Telam.

“The teachers are resisting and saying 'enough' to the government without resigning their convictions.”

Wednesday marked the 16th day of this year’s strike in the Buenos Aires school district, which serves some 4.5 million students. Alejandro Finocchiaro, general director of culture and education for the district, announced that he will deduct the teachers’ salaries for each day they continue their strike.

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Meanwhile, the Labor Minister of Buenos Aires, Marcelo Villegas, told Telam that the strike “is absolutely political” because “it means to return to a dynamic of the conflict that we had previously overcome.” He also claimed there were 13 meetings and nine proposals passed back and forth between the teachers and the government, but that they have yet to reach an agreement.

The most recent proposal offered by the government consisted of a 21 percent increase in two installments, with a trigger clause, along with other smaller bonuses.

Nonetheless, Buenos Aires teachers have vowed to continue fighting for better wages than those proposed by the Argentine state.

“There is a great anger at the mistreatment of teachers,” said Roberto Baradel, head of SUTEBA, who added that “they believe that authority is authoritarianism.”

“Authority is won with respect and legitimacy, not imposing conditions on the other.”

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